


Letters

by in_lighter_ink



Category: The West Wing
Genre: 1-500 words, Comment Fic, Gen, offscreen major character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-04
Updated: 2011-07-04
Packaged: 2017-10-21 00:56:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/219141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/in_lighter_ink/pseuds/in_lighter_ink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: The West Wing, any, Dear Uncle Sam</p>
            </blockquote>





	Letters

The letters have always started 'Dear Uncle Sam.' He's not entirely sure what's earned him that honorific, but he's touched by it. It's awoken in him a sort of avuncular instinct that's made him keep a file of the pairs of letters, from the very first (each word carefully, painstakingly formed, some consonants stubbornly backwards) to the most recent (styles nearly mature, syntax remarkably, unsurprisingly similar). Though the return addresses are states apart now, the letters are always postmarked within a few days of each other.

Sam's almost sure the twins don't plan for them to arrive in tandem, but they always do.

Over the years, he's heard all about their trials and triumphs at school, their parent-inspired frustrations, and their relationship woes (and hadn't that made him feel old, knowing that children he'd known as infants were now old enough to be dating). He suspects that the comfort of physical distance has made him the keeper of more than one secret, and takes that confidence seriously, offering advice when it's asked for (Molly asks outright, Huck hides his questions) with what he hopes is the kind of candid ease their father would be too reserved to show.

For a long time, the twins were his only link to Toby, or at least the only link that answered his e-mails (he's got all of Toby's books, even has long stretches of them memorized), and it's from them that he hears about the funeral. He can't quite believe it, had always thought that Toby might just live forever, surviving on righteous anger and cigars and lyrical prose.

"Flight 4061 to LaGuardia, now boarding at gate 42," the loudspeaker announces.

On the plane, Sam re-reads the letters, tries to find in himself the supportive uncle in between all the waves of grieving friend.


End file.
